Italian Startup Brings Its ‘Smartglasses’ to SXSW

GlassUp part of a slate of companies being showcased by the European Union

From a pool of more than 220 applicants, ten startups were selected. And this weekend at the Palm Door on 6th Street in Austin, their wares will be on display as part of “The European Union at SXSW.”

euinaustin.org

Among the companies participating is GlassUp, a group of high-tech eyewear developers based in Modena, Italy. The company has essentially picked up where Google Glass left off, creating two lines of “smartglasses:”

UNO lenses use low-energy Bluetooth to relay alerts into the lower-third of a wearer’s vision: incoming emails, tweets, text messages, current news briefs–UNO can even translate words into visual cues to communicate with those with hearing impediments. The second product, F4 glasses, is designed for industrial use, featuring a video camera, a thermographic camera, multi-color vision, 23-degrees field of view and more. Staying true to their Italian pride in quality design and fashion, GlassUp is committed to developing frames that weigh only 20 grams (0.7 ounces) more than normal glasses.

Other EU@SXSW companies include Moggie (Sweden), makers of a smart collar for cats, CityCrop (Greece), whose intelligent urban-farming station plugs into a smartphone, and Canard (Spain), which uses drones to help ensure the safety of commercial airport takeoffs and landings.

David O’Sullivan, EU Ambassador to the U.S., will take part in the March 11 SXSW panel “EU Digital Single Market: Breaking Down Barriers” as well as host Saturday night’s EU delegation kickoff party. All of the companies being showcased at SXSW have participated in a European Commission funding program.